WEED – The Weed Lady Cougars improved to 7-0 in Shasta Cascade League play with a 40-32 victory over the Modoc Lady Braves Tuesday night in Weed.

From the outset it looked as if the Lady Cougars were poised to run away with an easy victory outscoring the Lady Braves 10-4 in the first period, then 15-4 in the second period to take a 25-8 advantage to halftime.

In the third period, the Lady Braves trimmed one point off the deficit, but the game still had that out of reach feel with a score of 33-17.

In the fourth period, a late flurry of three point shots brought the Lady Braves right back and the Lady Cougars saw their 16 point lead widdled down to a three point lead, 35-32, with one minute left in the game.

With 43 seconds left, Lady Cougar Karene Marshall stroked two free throws to put the Cougars up by five points. 23 seconds later, Marshall came up with a steal and hit Tia Palangvanh under the hoop for an easy score that put the game away for the Lady Cougars.

Marshall led the Lady Cougars with 17 points. Destinee Jones followed with 13 points and Brooke McBrian scored six points.

Also on Tuesday night, Mount Shasta defeated Fall River at home 47-28 in SCL action. The Lady bears improved to 11-8 overall and 6-1 in the SCL.

Boy's Varsity

In a battle for sole possession of first place in the Shasta Cascade League varsity boys standings, the Modoc Braves came out with a 61-55 victory over the Weed Cougars Tuesday night.

Despite a game-high 29 points from Edgar Casorla, the Cougars (17-4, 5-2) were unable to take down the Braves who now hold a one game lead over Weed and Mount Shasta in the league standings.

"Their bigs just kind of took it to us," Weed coach Mike Carpine said. "We made a couple of runs, but we weren't able to stop them. But we are 17-4 and we are not out of it yet."

The Cougars came out of the gates red-hot, jumping to a 12-2 lead in the first period. A poised Modoc squad fought right back and closed the period with a 7-0 run.

After trading runs in the first period, the teams battled back and forth in the second period with Modoc outscoring the Cougars 16-12 to claim a 25-24 halftime lead.

In the second half, Modoc's inside presence proved to overwhelm the Cougars as they jumped out with a 19-8 run to claim a twelve point lead, 44-32. Casorla hit two free throws to close the period, to send the game to the final period at 44-34.

The fourth period opened with a Casorla three-ball, followed by two free throws by Casorla, then a lay-up who else but Casorla, to bring the Cougars to within three points.

Page 2 of 2 - After a Modoc score, Casorla stroked two more free-throws to set the score at 46-43.

The Casorla barrage had brought the Cougars back to life, but Modoc's big men put together a quick response with a 6-0 run to build their advantage back to nine points.

The Cougars refused to go away as Trevor Shaffer scored, and Casorla followed with two free-throws and lay-in to pull the Cougars back to within three points.

The Braves went back inside to their big-men and put up consecutive scores to push their lead back to seven points, but a score by Noah Traylor and the Cougars were back to within five, 56-51.

Another score by the Braves was followed by a Traylor bucket to make it 58-53 with 1 minute left to play.

Needing a stop on defense, the Cougars got that and more when Casorla came up with a clutch steal and hit Traylor for a bucket to make it a 58-55 game with 35 seconds remaining.

The Cougars had fouls to give, so they extended the game by fouling the Braves, eventually sending Riley Larranaga to the line. Larranaga stroked both free throws and put the game away for the Braves.

Casorla finished 9-9 from the free throw line en route to his game high 29 points. Shaffer poured in 14 points and Traylor added six points for Weed.

Mount Shasta defeated Fall River at home 65-40 on Tuesday to improve to 5-2 in the SCL and 15-5 overall

The Cougars travel to Fall River on Friday, then Trinity on Tuesday (Feb. 5) before playing returning home for senior night and Carnival festivities on Friday, Feb. 8 against Etna.